Preoperative assessment of myometrial invasion of endometrial carcinoma by transvaginal ultrasonography.

Abstract

Preoperative transvaginal ultrasonographic evaluation of myometrial invasion was performed in 33 patients with endometrial cancer and compared with histologic findings. TVU was remarkably precise in predicting deep myometrial invasion (accuracy 91.7%) but superficial myometrial invasion (sensitivity 20%). TVU was highly accurate in patients with tumours limited to the endometrium (sensitivity 100%) and the sensitivity of TVU in distinguishing nil or superficial versus deep invasion was 87.8%. TVU appears to be an efficient, economic, and practical tool for this purpose, however its limitation leads to more complex imaging techniques, especially in patients in whom preoperative irradiation or conservative management is planned.